Much to discuss!

Let’s start with last night’s game. Oy. Just unacceptable. To not only lose, but lose 11-0 against the worst-scoring team in the AL? Embarrassing. And I’m not too fond of Ollie Perez’s post-game interviews after his poor outings. It’s always the same, along the lines of: You have good days and bad days, and I just have to prepare for the next start now.

No, Ollie. You don’t just have to prepare for the next start. You have to figure out what went wrong in the last start and fix it. Let’s hear you say you’re disappointed in yourself. That you want to do better. No more shoulder shrugging, Ollie. Own it and fix it. Period. Meanwhile, offense, let’s hit. Hit, hit, hit. Hit. And then plate the runs. Pretty please.

Still, as will happen when we’ve got Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez together in the booth, there were some laughs even as we got pummeled. I will share them here with you, in case you got disgusted and turned off the TV.

When the score was still only (grrrrr) 7-0, Keith and Gary started to get a bit loopy. They had new toys–stuffed, quacking Aflac ducks. With kerchiefs around their necks. Or “handkerchiefs,” if Keith had his way.

Keith: That’s very western. Let’s put it over his beak, and he’d be an outlaw.Gary: A western duck.
Keith: Lemme see if I can get it over his beak. Hold on. There we go.Duck: Aflac! Aflac!
Keith: Aw, I can’t do it.Duck: AFLAC!Keith: Stick ’em up.Gary: Oh! That’s very good. Let me see if I can do that. That’s like Jesse James. Jesse and Frank James Duck. There you go.
Keith: Get your hands up! Gimme your money and your jewels.

Our Keith would only get…loopier, to Gary’s amusement. Later on:

Keith: The fans here are looking for a sign. I said it again. It
reminds me of that Steve Martin movie, The Man With Two Brains. Kathleen Turner, of course, was the villain in the
movie. And his wife was dead, and he had a portrait of his wife up
above the fireplace, and he goes, ‘Honey, you’ve been dead for a long
time, give me a sign.’ (Laughs) And he got all the negative signs, and
he totally disregarded it. (Keith’s obviosuly tickled.)

Gary: So how does that relate to the experience here do you think?

Keith: No, it doesn’t. (Laughs.)

As the score got more painfully lopsided, we heard about Gary’s dogs, Angie and Wryly, and Keith’s beloved Dunkie. Then a rather detailed remembrance of the cartoon Underdog. Even Keith muttered at some point, “We’re just killing time here.”

I’m off tonight to the game with the always fun and exuberant Lynn Cohen, so let’s hope the team pulls off the win. Pretty, pretty please.

Monday, however, was my first trip to Shea this week. The entertaining Metstradamus and his brother Fred got a gang of bloggerati and assorted buddies together to watch…the first loss against the Mariners. Still, fun was had with an all-around groovy group.

Included in the pics are: Toasty Joe, Metstradamus, Me, Coop, Greg, and Rickey. And there’s also master commenter Dykstraw there with me.

Lastly, because clearly you haven’t heard enough from me today, let’s talk about Jerry Manuel. I, like many, have enjoyed him so far. Mostly. He’s relaxed, funny, and he seems to have eased the tension in the clubhouse. We think, “Ooh! Players having fun again! Look at them all gangsta.” (Erm, relatively.)

But let’s not take this new lighthearted regime too far, now Jerry. We get that you’re easy breezy with the media.
But after an 11-0 loss against an awful team, you should not start your press conference cracking jokes and looking like this. I like that he didn’t let Ollie off the hook. I like that he’s not letting any player off the hook. But I’m not sure I’m cool with the all smiles after a truly unnecessary loss.

I’ll leave you with this: So, Ollie. When you’re pitching aces, it’s okay to dance around at batting practice. I’d even say it’s sweet and cute.
But when you’re pitching like you’re pitching this season, stop dancing and get to friggin’ work.

Just think..if they put wireless at the Citi, we’ll be able to live-blog silly blow out stories tooo..hah.

I didn’t listen to post game, but I don’t think there is anything any Mets player could say in a post game interview short of “I give up” that I want to hear anymore. Similarilary to Manager, put up or shut up.

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